Home › Forums › Weekly Numbers › Scavenger Life Episode 305: The Biggest Transfer of Wealth in Human History
- This topic has 109 replies, 43 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 10 months ago by Meg.
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04/09/2017 at 2:12 pm #16292
You guys have made clear that we shouldn’t talk about politics here. Makes sense. But can we agree on one thing? The Baby Boomers and their parents su
[See the full post at: Scavenger Life Episode 305: The Biggest Transfer of Wealth in Human History] -
04/09/2017 at 5:21 pm #16304
Hello everyone,
I will post my numbers later I just couldn’t wait to share my scavenge of the week. On Friday I bought 50 Soft Surroundings Afternoon Walk Tunics. They retail for $89.95 each, I purchased them for $1.00 each and paid no sales tax. I listed them late Friday evening for $29.99 they started selling like fresh bread straight from the oven. Thinking of supply and demand I raised the price to $34.99 they are still selling! So far I have sold 18 tunics for a total of 544.82. For the first time my little store is on FIRE. I have the fire logo next to the tunics. Profit is better than wages.
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04/10/2017 at 12:02 am #16330
How the heck did you find them for $1 each? That’s so awesome, Liz. Good for you!!!
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04/10/2017 at 12:49 am #16335
Raise the price even more! Sell them for $50 each!
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04/11/2017 at 8:46 am #16416
I never heard of this brand. Where did you find such a quantity? Are they new?
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04/09/2017 at 6:23 pm #16305
Awesome, Liz!
Ryanne, the scan sheet is only available if you use Ebay’s bulk shipping.
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04/09/2017 at 7:30 pm #16306
April 2-8
Total items in store 1300+
Sold 28
COGS 53.50
Highest Price Sold Nintendo Entertainment System
Ave Price 28.81
INTL – 1 GSP
Returns 0
Spent on new merchandise 113.00
New listings 51
A great week for my store -
04/09/2017 at 9:08 pm #16307
RR Store Week April 2-8, 2017
Total Items in Store: 1,252
Items Sold: 31
Cost of Items Sold: $45.21
Total Sales: $792.48
Highest Price Sold: $151.99 (50’s never used bathroom exhaust fan)
Average Price Sold: $25.56
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $47.70
Number of items listed this week: 24So I dove into Scan Sheets with mixed results. First time took me a while because I never use bulk shipping. I had to figure out how it’s done, then go from there, as I normally just print them individually. Took me twice as long to ship…that kinda sucked. Next night I did the same, with similar results. Both times the carrier scanned the sheet the following day and everything was fine. Third night I go to print up postage for four items. Bulk shipping kicked out an item sold through Global Shipping. There was a link to the “new” bulk shipping page (still trying to get used to the old one) that included all four items, but I couldn’t adjust the weight on anything. It was all fixed. So I did it the normal way instead. Not sure why it would do that if the package has a domestic destination.
Bulk shipping seems to be tailored to sellers that sell a lot of the same thing; if your iPhone case package weighs 4 ounces, then you plug 4 ounces into the initial listing and when it comes time to ship it’s not an issue. But since I sell a variety of stuff, all with different weights, bulk shipping is a bit more challenging. I guess I can plug in the weight of clothing as I’m listing, but that adds another step to the process. I wish I didn’t have to do all this extra work just to pick up the Post Office’s slack.
Not much listing this week. Too busy celebrating my birthday, which is tomorrow! But come Tuesday, it’s back to work. I hit my sales goal this week, and I want that to continue.
*Paul*
- This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Rydell Relics.
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04/09/2017 at 9:13 pm #16309
i’m right there with you, i like printing labels one by one, it’s easy and that’s what i’m used to. also keeps me from sending people the wrong things. i wish i could get a scan sheet just for everything i’ve printed on this business day. why not provide that ebay?
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04/09/2017 at 10:01 pm #16314
Amen! It took us a little to adjust to using the bulk, and it sounds like you are lucky with a great carrier that will scan in your packages. Even as good as our main carrier is, she won’t spend the time on her route, especially when her incoming trucks are late, to scan 15-25+ items per day. We have a lot of clothes that sell each day, so we have a high volume, so the Bulk Shipping is our only option for now.
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04/10/2017 at 8:34 am #16344
Add it to our list: http://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/forum/can-ebay-improve
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04/10/2017 at 9:47 am #16348
Happy, happy, joy, joy Paul!
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04/12/2017 at 2:19 am #16475
Thank you!
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04/09/2017 at 9:43 pm #16311
HI, will the podcast be on iTunes this week, not seeing it yet.
THANKS
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04/09/2017 at 9:47 pm #16313
Rydell: Yeah, we run into a random item every once in a while on the bulk shipping that for some reason won’t print, so we have to print it individually as a one off item. No idea why. One thing for certain: if you have to edit the address (too long and you have to remove spaces), you will have to print that one on it’s own.
As for the speed, we were slow as well, but we refined the process and it went much faster. We pack up the item, write the item name, last name of the buyer, zip code, and weight on the package.
Then we go to the bulk shipping process, and make sure the weight and shipping option is correct on each one (we don’t use the “edit record”, we just use the grid screen as shown).
Jay, we have talked about items to interviewe eBay about, and a revamp of this process would be one of them. With the acceptance scan being more important with Guaranteed Delivery, this process needs to have some bugs worked out.
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04/11/2017 at 1:36 am #16405
T-Satt, I did almost the exact same thing. I wrote the customer’s last name on a Post-It, stuck it on the package, printed the labels, then matched everything up. Not loving the process, but I’ll do whatever it takes to get TRS status back. Like Ryanne, I’m afraid of mixing my labels up (happened once and I vowed it would never happen again). But I just did a batch of five items, and it wasn’t so bad. But, also like Ryanne, I wish eBay could do this for those of us who prefer printing individually.
*Paul*
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04/11/2017 at 8:15 am #16414
We don’t even use post-it notes. Just write on the package itself, and then cover it with the label.
I’m not sure if the Scan Sheet could be done retroactive from individual shipping. Maybe if you could select your previous labels and ask to combine on one Scan Sheet.
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04/12/2017 at 4:56 pm #16518
Maybe if you could select your previous labels and ask to combine on one Scan Sheet.
@T-Satt : not through eBay labels
@Ryanne : Just FYI, FitShipper Labels will let you create a scan form whenever you want (as long as the shipping date on the label hasn’t passed.)The software sets the default ship date for you in a pretty smart way (after 4 PM on weekdays or 1 PM on Saturday, the shipping date defaults to the next USPS business day), or you can easily set it manually. For example, if you were printing a label at 5 PM on the Saturday before Memorial Day, the shipping date would default to the following Tuesday. So, you could print labels Saturday through Tuesday, and then on Tuesday you could select all of those packages to add to a SCAN. You could print more labels after that with the ship date set to Wednesday, etc.
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04/12/2017 at 6:54 pm #16528
We may have to look into that. We bulk shipped 34 items today through eBay, and that process is clunky. As we grow, we will need a better process that will give us the Scan Sheet.
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04/09/2017 at 10:45 pm #16315
Week April 2-8, 2017
Total Items in Store: 846
Items Sold: 22 (7 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $98 (15.7% of sales)
Total Sales: $625.82
Highest Price Sold: $70 (2) (Brown & Sharpe Slant Line Micrometer and 1903 John Nutry Stevens Mfg Co Bank)
Average Price Sold: $28.45
Returns: 0 (1 NPB though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 8 sales, $231.93 (37% of total sales), $11.52 fees (4.9% of sales)Pretty good week considering I didn’t do any listing or maintenance on my store – this weekend was just too nice not to be outside. Spent some time along the river here in Hoboken, went to Woodbury Commons outlets upstate NY, and then BBQ’d at my in-laws house. Nice little weekend.
Sales were steady all week with the two big-ish sales coming mid week to put me above an average week. With Easter coming up next weekend and us travelling to my parents’ house in south central PA, unlikely I’ll do any listing or sourcing this week. It might be a good thing, though, as 2 weekends from now is the Stormville Flea where I’ll likely spend more than my fair share.
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04/09/2017 at 11:11 pm #16318
Week of Apr 2 – 8
* Total Items in Store: 772
* Items Sold: 15
* Cost of Items Sold: $21.50 + $6 Commission
* Total Sales: $379.77
* Highest Price Sold: $180 Set of 12 Fitz & Floyd Dragon Napkin Rings
* Average Price Sold: $25.32
* Returns: 0
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 27The napkin rings are actually my biggest sale ever, but it beat my previous biggest sale by only $1! My week was also back to normal after having two slow weeks.
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04/09/2017 at 11:15 pm #16319
Copying my stats over from my intro thread 🙂
Number of items in store: 214
Items Sold: 14
Avg Selling Price: $20.33
Total Sales: $284
Highest Item: $99 ACDC CD. Found it on the shelf from my mum’s old collection. Most were selling on ebay for around $20 but I had the original Australian release with collector’s edition poster 🙂 Very happy with that one.I’ve been meaning to check out auctions, really the only thing holding me back is the fact I’m a huge introvert….. but I definitely intend on going.
Goal for this week is to get at least to 300 items in the store, but im hoping to get to 350.
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04/10/2017 at 8:38 am #16345
Do they have regular auctions in Australia where they sell off a household of stuff? I know when we went to England and Ireland, the auctions we found were more just the fancy stuff.
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04/11/2017 at 1:51 am #16406
They do them sometimes when someone dies and doesn’t have anyone to leave their stuff too, or if someone has defaulted and done a runner, theyll auction off the property assetts. Definitely something I need to investigate further here. Police auctions too would be a good one also.
A lot of the time though, all the items will just get donated straight to charity as a tax writeoff. A lot of people will just send the Salvation Army or Vinnies (like Goodwill) around to collect the goods and then write off the value of the assets. It’s normally less work than actually selling the goods and they’ll normally get a higher value overall from the tax break than the money they’d make from the sales. You normally get the auctions when someone doesn’t have much money to begin with, so their income is low enough that the tax break wouldn’t benefit them.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by davidbloop.
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04/09/2017 at 11:17 pm #16320
4/2 – 4/8
Total Items in store: 382
Items sold: 4
Cost of items sold: approx. $40
Total Sales: $125
Highest price sold: $35 Trucker hat
Average price sold: $31
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $0Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????
Ebay to Amazon – 13 sales – $1634, COGS – $717, fees – $196, profit – $719
There seems to be a new scam on Amazon. I have seen it now a couple of times. Items that should be $100, are being listed for $10. After you order, the item never arrives. I think they are banking on a percentage of people will not file claims. Good news is that I will get a refund, just takes time and is annoying. Well, it is not really a “new” scam, but I have been noticing it more.-
04/09/2017 at 11:33 pm #16323
LeeinTN,
I saw a similar situation last week. I noticed while listing several books that the same seller had thousands of books priced at $8 that normally sell for $20 or more. Not sure how a just launched and zero feedback seller was able to list so many items and accept so many sales. Normally they will throttle your sales for several months to make sure your a legit seller. If you chek the sellers feedback now you will see hundreds of negative feedbacks from buyers who were ripped off. Seller probably make 20-30k used some kind of fake tracking number to get the sales depsoited, and then closed out their account before amazon could sieze it.
File a A-Z claim and amazon will refund you.
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04/10/2017 at 6:53 pm #16381
I got taken by this scam. Amazon reimbursed me.
$9 shoes. Seller disappeared.
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04/11/2017 at 9:20 am #16418
I read an article this morning that is saying scammers are somehow taking over existing accounts, changing bank account information, selling a bunch of stuff, then disappearing.
The good news as a buyer is we can get our money back, but if we are the owner of a hacked account, that could be trouble.
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04/09/2017 at 11:26 pm #16321
Ebay
Total Items in Store: 9354
Items Sold: 111
Cost of Items Sold: $128
Total Sales: $3963
Highest Price Sold: $325 Leica DRP Camera
Average Price Sold: $35.70
Returns: 4 (broken lamp and clothing)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $452
Number of items listed this week: 125Best week in a long time on ebay. Highest sold item was a vintage Lecia camera for $325 to another reseller. Two large kids book lots, a goosebump kids book set $188 and a Dr. Seuss book lot $180. Great looking signed football coaching book $173. We started listing a lot of toys from that huge container lot purchase. A lot of them sold for $40-60 and the highest was a pair of Annapolis Cadet GIJoe figures for $125.
Not on the totals listed above because they sold on amazon. A Seed of Chucky toy set for $125, a self help workbook for $225, 3 sets of magic tree house book sets for $108 each and a contracting sourcing book for $128.
I have never gone to a live auction, it’s a weak point in my sourcing. I have done plenty of storage units and moving units auctions but for some reason I cannot find time to go to a live auction. I would meet you guys up in DC but I dread fighting that traffic, after seven years of commuting up there every day I avoid it at all costs. I have started looking more at online estate auctions, there are two very close auction houses that have went 100% online. They do not really picture or put up box/table lots.
Negative feedbacks happen, its been three months since we had one but we just received a negative for an item lost in the mail. I just focus on getting more positive feedbacks and let the negative be, not going to stress about it.
Taking a few days off this week and then traveling for Easter, pipeline is stocked so hopefully sales will stay steady.
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04/10/2017 at 8:49 am #16347
Have you hired more employees? In the last update I remember, you’re two employees left and you were looking for new ones. I know you have a lot of work to be done!
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04/12/2017 at 12:12 am #16473
I have one part timer that comes in Monday through Wednesday, he primarily helps pack in the morning and then pictures a line of stuff I have set out the night before for ebay. Then I have a contractor that goes to our single largest charity partner Mon, Wen and Friday to source for books. Listing remains the bottleneck, around 400 items sitting around waiting to be listed. Most of my time is dedicated to listing items on Amazon.
I am toying around with the the idea of teaching my oldest daughter how to list. She is looking for extra cash to supplement her part-time job and this wouldn’t interfere with her college class schedule.
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04/09/2017 at 11:50 pm #16327
4/2/17 – 4/8/17
Total Items in Store: 1211
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $8.95
Total Sales: $571.94
Highest Price Sold: $175.00 (Mid-Century Spider Table Legs)
Average Price Sold: $33.64
International Sales: 0
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $77.25We were on a family vacation last week, so I haven’t listed in over a week. I was pretty happy to sell 25 items while I was away! Since I didn’t post last week, those #s are listed below.
3/26/17 – 4/4/17
Total Items in Store: 1228
Items Sold: 20
Cost of Items Sold: $21.50
Total Sales: $857.89
Highest Price Sold: $300.00 (Vintage pocket watch)
Average Price Sold: $42.89
International Sales: 3
Returns: 1 initiated, but not shipped yet.
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $93.72Speaking of auctions, I went to one during the week listed above and spent quite a lot on fishing lures! Not my thing at all, but they were mostly new in package so I figured they would be easy to flip. Not as simple as I’d hoped, and now I’m avoiding the box altogether. Wish me luck!
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04/10/2017 at 12:06 am #16331
Ryanne, it isn’t that we baby boomers were richer than your generation–we were also broke when we were young–we have just had more time to collect stuff. LOL
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04/10/2017 at 9:18 pm #16389
just to be clear, it’s not about how much money your generation had when you were younger, it was the opportunities you were given to get an education, get a job, buy a house and to acquire all the things you collected over time.
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04/10/2017 at 11:45 pm #16395
Just remember, the older generations did all that…without the internet and smartphones.
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04/11/2017 at 12:57 am #16400
The internet and smartphones are amazing tools, but it doesn’t change the fact that a college education was inexpensive and often unnecessary for the Boomer generation to secure a good paying, white collar job with opportunity for advancement.
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04/11/2017 at 8:46 am #16415
That may be true, but with the internet and smartphones so readily available, knowledge is at our fingertips so easily. How amazing is it that we can create income while sitting in our pajamas? The access to data and the technology that makes it run is mind boggling.
I was jogging a few years ago and the GPS app that was on my phone was not working. So, I stopped, took out my phone, downloaded a new app, paid for it, and then continued on. I then pondered about what I just did. Something that I could not have imagined when I got out of college in the early 90’s.
I was jogging with my phone (a small phone, not the behemoth that they showed in “Wall Street”), and while I stopped, I purchased something (money actually changed hands) and added a program to that phone (without plugging it into another computer). In fact, this program could now track my exact location on the planet. Damn.
All I”m saying is, that for any challenges that we have today compared to the past, we also have many benefits and tools that the past did not. And the next generation will have new and difficult challenges that we did not, with new and wonderful tools we can’t imagine.
I feel that those before us did not have it better, or worse…just different. Those after us will be the same. I think my job is to strive and thrive in the environment I am in.
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04/11/2017 at 9:04 am #16417
Very true. We each must learn to survive in whatever way we can. It just happens that we’ve chosen to thrive off the waste of a previous generation. A good sign that they lived in great wealth.
It is also great that we have technology that maximizes our efficiency. As you say, each generation has new technology that helps them. Steam engine, telegraph, automobile, airplanes, etc.
But I think its naive to ignore the fact that any culture has its ups and downs. Rules of the games change. Opportunities can shrink. I’d bet that auctions in 30 years will not be like they are now overflowing with stuff. Not good or bad. Just a fact.
Who knows, maybe when we’re old, a sign of wealth is how many digital implants you have in your body.
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04/11/2017 at 9:44 am #16419
First off, digital implants…ewwww
I think Americans spending habits have changed more than opportunities. 50 years ago people had a blue collar job, bought one car, lived in a decent sized house, had a well for water, had a few outfits of clothing and went to the doctor only when they had to. Their monthly bills were probably: house note, electricity, food, house phone.
Today we have 2 cars, as big a house as we can afford, walk-in-closets full of clothes and we go to the doctor a lot. Our monthly bills: house note, water, sewer, electricity, phone bill, cell phone bill, internet, cable tv, credit cards, student loans, netflix, food, vacation, car notes, INSURANCE… It is death by a thousand cuts. We were spending almost $5k a year in cell phones, tv and internet. CRAZY
Our expectations of what is a “normal” life have risen exponentially. I am not saying that is a bad thing, but I feel that the spending side of the equation has changed as much or more than the income side.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by LeeinTN.
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04/11/2017 at 9:56 am #16423
50 years ago is 1967. This is the height of wealth in the US.
Again, current auctions are proof of a different lifestyle than what you suggest. These auctions are the result of a lifetime of accumulation from the people in 1967. They certainly had more than “one car, lived in a decent sized house, had a well for water, had a few outfits of clothing and went to the doctor only when they had to.” I’m not seeing a simple lifestyle with tables full of stuff!
There were certainly some people who lived simpler, but I think you’re thinking more the 1930s.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Jay.
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04/11/2017 at 11:30 am #16432
Jay, you are right, I was being over-dramatic. What I was trying to say is that our “needs” have changed. What monthly bills did people have in 1967? It seems like the last 25 years we have seen the rise of information and entertainment budgets. Inflation adjusted income for middle and lower class families has stayed basically flat. We as Americans expect that same dollar to be split more ways. We have added cell phones, internet, tv subscriptions. People today are more likely to buy an app or a digital movie than a toy or a tschotske. Maybe in the future auctions will have table lots of people’s itunes collections? <– sarcasm
My point is: The equation has to be looked at from both sides, income and spending. Our spending habits have changed and our income has not kept up.
I agree with your assessment that there is a large transfer of wealth going on now, probably one that will be unmatched in the future.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by LeeinTN.
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04/11/2017 at 11:46 am #16436
Totally agreed. We’ve mentioned before that when Millennials and Gen X’ers retire, auctions will be filled with old electronics (that are probably useless). Who buys big china cabinets these days? People buy flat screen TV’s and phablets.
But the wider point is today’s opportunities vs Baby Boomer’s opportunities. Ask any Millennial about their opportunities after taking on huge debt for a college education. I think earning potential and buying power is less these days. One reason why we now have a billionaire for a President who promised to bring back the old days.
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04/11/2017 at 12:48 pm #16443
We will be selling first edition yeti coolers and “retro” yoga pants. I agree, college degrees have both a real and perceived decline in value over my lifetime. Part of that has to do with perception – more people have degrees, so they are less “special”, but part of it has to do with value of education. Apprenticeship has been replaced by scholarship, more people going to college to get a degree instead of learning an art or a trade that translates into a career. I think some Millenials get it, there is a ground swell of young adults learning trades.
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04/12/2017 at 11:33 pm #16539
Jay, that isn’t the way I remember the 60’s. No house until my parents bought a small bungalo with no air conditioning in 1964. We had one car. On stifling hot days my mom would drive my little brother and me to the airport and we would sit in the terminal and watch planes take off and land so we could enjoy the air conditioning. The only time we got new clothes was Christmas, birthdays and when school started each year. College was an impossibilty. I never even heard of student loans. If we didn’t have the cash we did without. Got my R.N. degree as an adult after my youngest child started elementary school. In high school I earned 50 cents an hour babysitting and ten dollars per article I wrote for the local paper. My first real job as a secretary paid $360 per month.
Here is the big difference between the “good old days” and now. Credit cards were rare to non-existent. You could run up debt at individual stores, even the grocery store, or on your car or mortgage. But you couldn’t use a swipe of plastic to buy anything.
As for college; most people didn’t go. But my high school education taught me more than today’s typical college graduate knows. That includes history, geography, civics, grammar, reading, etc. I am astounded at the ignorance of young college grads today. No wonder they can’t get a job.
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04/13/2017 at 6:11 am #16545
Sounds like you guys worked hard. It also is a good example how opportunities have changed.
Back in the 1960s in our small rural county, people say you could be a high school drop out and get a job at either the Wrangler plant, the Tannery, or a government printing factory. They paid the equivalent of $30/hr in today’s dollars, plus benefits/pension. So you could be quickly middle class for just being a warm body. If you wanted to go to college, you could pay for it by working a summer job.
These days, it’s tough to get a job that pays $8/he around here with zero benefits.
I don’t know why it’s controversial to say Baby Boomers lived through a really exciting, prosperous time. You guys hit the lottery. Life is just different now. New strategies are needed.
As a Gen X’er, I am minimalist because I see that acquiring stuff has done nothing for my parents. My father just did a down sizing a couple years ago. All the stuff he had was a burden and meaningless. Now that he’s hitting 70, he also never put time in to get to now himself. He seems a little lost. I think this is why younger people put their money into experiences. This is the only thing you really will have when you’re old.
And again, let’s remember the whole point of this conversation. The amazing glut of stuff at auctions today will not last so enjoy it while you can!
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04/13/2017 at 8:54 am #16554
And not to be too gloomy about a future without the same opportunities and less stuff, here’s a great post celebrating the freedom Millennials have if they embrace the necessary change: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/05/13/millennials-wealthiest-generation
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04/13/2017 at 11:17 am #16562
Was a good read and makes a lot of sense. I think my generation is conditioned to save more. I had friends who started working in high school purely in preparation for their University fees and since then, most of my friends are living extremely frugally. They aren’t afraid to spend their money to enjoy their life but they aren’t amassing things. Of course there’s always exceptions, me for instance, I collect old video games so I naturally I have amassed a whole load of stuff.
At the same time though, in all other areas of my life it’s the opposite and it’s the same for most people I know around my age group. Most of the time it’s about saving money to protect them for the future, I honestly believe what’s driving alot of this amongst the younger generations is just fear, they’ve seen how their parent’s managed to get a house and get by and how much harder that’s become over the years…I think the fear of it getting even harder is causing a lot of young people to become early investors in their futures.
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04/14/2017 at 8:18 am #16592
I see evidence of what Jay is relating here. I think it is profoundly true here on the Coastline – housing prices are completely unaffordable to most of the younger people and working families here. Some of our clients with higher level blue collar or white collar jobs – teachers, engineers, accountants – in the 1960s and 1970s could even buy multiple houses as rentals and now their kids live in them because they can’t afford to buy their own. At estate sales there is often a lot of ephemera documenting extensive travels in Europe during the midcentury era (pre-retirement). Most working families are busy paying for housing cost, taxes, childcare, gas, insurance, and food – just practical stuff.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by ChristineR.
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04/14/2017 at 9:10 am #16595
i want to echo what ChristineR just said, as i’m living it right now. i’m visiting my sister in Boston. she lives in a house my dad part owns w/ 2 other guys (baby boomers). my dad is currently helping one of his real estate partners refinish an apartment in this other guys house, so his 30something year old daughter and her husband move into it because they can’t afford to rent or own anything in Boston. Same w my sister, she’s helping manage this apt building for lower rent, because it’s too expensive in Boston. YET both my dad and his partners own property and are selling it off for a premium, but not to their children, to the rich people in the city who can afford it. so, the wealth transfer is not always directly generational. making the millennials struggle to get what their parents either have had or just won’t pass down. thanks parents!
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04/14/2017 at 11:28 pm #16620
I believe all of us living in American “hit the jackpot” when I see how high our standard of living is. Yes, there are other countries that are great, but some are literally hell on earth. Our average welfare/food stamp recipient lives much better than the average person in the rest of the world.
And I can’t argue with anyone who wishes to spend their money on “experiences” rather than “stuff”. When I was growing up vacations were a rare driving trip to visit relatives with maybe an overnight stay at the roadside motel along Route 66. Today’s kids have grown up used to frequent trips to resorts like Disney World, “class trips” to Europe, and being constantly shuttled from one expensive activity to another by doting soccer moms.
The way to tell whether you are spending too much on “stuff” is how well you take care of it. If you have so much stuff your home is becoming cluttered and dirty, you probably have too much. If you have more stuff than you can fit into your home so that you can’t even park the car in the garage or you are paying rent on a storage locker for the overflow, you definitely have too much.
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04/15/2017 at 8:49 am #16626
There is no question that we are fortunate in the US, but the wealth is getting more concentrated and timing is important. Basically the earlier the decade you settled here where I live, the better off you were. On the whole, I do believe that opportunities for higher education, home ownership, pensions, etc. were more easily attainable to earlier generations. More to the point of this original conversation is that the quality goods they bought are now getting released into the marketplace. I can appreciate how well made and interesting some of these items are, and hopefully potential buyers will continue to shop online and appreciate them too vs. today’s goods that are not built to last. I love to sell functional and artsy items with vintage flair.
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04/10/2017 at 9:54 am #16349
As I’ve whined before, I sell zero practical stuff virtually no clothing, etc. so the last couple of weeks have been slow, I still managed to sell around $450 worth of stuff (highest was an $80 ring on ebay.) This morning I have a single package going out–and I haven’t paid my taxes yet (yes, I am a horrible procrastinator.)
I am running a few auctions on ebay just to move some stuff out. At any rate, I am a big fan of auctions–I am lucky that my local auction house has a good mix of fancy stuff and plain old box lots that go reasonably.
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04/10/2017 at 10:10 am #16350
Total Items in Store: 341
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $16 (used) + $49 (RA)
Total Sales: $344
Highest Price Sold: $56 (Hubley Duesenberg Car Model Kit, paid $4 Indy Thift)
Average Price Sold: $29
Returns: 0; Int’l Sales: 1 afghan to Canada GSP
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0 I was very good this week with the challenge.
Number of items listed this week: +/- 15Facebook: Two sales $99 for an older model Kichenaid Stand Mixer (my mom’s) and $50 for NWT Pottery Barn Outdoor pillows (thifted for $6!)
This was a fun podcast to listen to. I don’t have time and freedom to go to auctions, but it sounds amazing except the nemesis part. Maybe you’ll hit one soon where no one present likes your favorite stuff. You have the gift of seeing value where others do not. I notice many of the older pickers around here pass over some Etsy style kitch & housewares, flatware (except knives), and vintage linens. At the thrifts it’s a lot of left over items but I think some elect to not have a house estate sale. I plan to hit estate sales after my hiatus and try to get closer to the source. This town grew up in the 50s and 60s. The rummage sales here are great if the sorters don’t get to shop it first.
A good week for me. Haopily I got rid of a couple of bulky items from my garage. I’ve washed some cartoon bedding and midcentury melmac from the piles that I hope to list this week. Thank you to those who provided plastic cleaning tips. I’ve got quite a way to go with the piles but I’m starting to get a bit of breathing room. 🙂
In other news, we got a new Grocery Outlet here! I went before the grand opening to the soft open. If you know your prices well, there were some great bargains. Other things like produce, not so great.
In really unrelated news, we are watching the old Wonder Years TV show with my tween and teen. I’m having fun checking out the stuff in the background, especially the episode with the backyard luau.
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04/10/2017 at 10:17 am #16351
April 3-9
Total items in store-257
Sold 4
Total sold: $272
COGS $183*
Highest Price-Vintage Caviar sparkly eyeglasses $152.50
Lowest Price-Liz Claiborne faux leather bag that had been mine-$14.99
Returns 1 They opened a case. Almost fought it when I realized that I had shown but not mentioned the Reebok insert in the Asics shoe. Just accepted should get it back today.Spent on new merchandise $14 Red Wing Shoes and more Eyeglasses
The 2 pair of eyeglasses that sold were bought in a lot for about $180 a few weeks ago. I put several of them up for auction because I wasn’t totally sure of the price. 3 never got a bid. One sold for $50 and the last one had a bidding war between 2 people that brought it up to $152. I think I’ll keep starting with auctions with the glasses until I have a better sense of worth. Then I can switch them over to BIN when the auction runs out. I have 6-7 other pairs of eyeglasses to sell, but I think they will be in more of the $40-50 range than $150.
Decent sales # for me but would have been scary if someone hadn’t spent $202 on eyeglasses
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04/10/2017 at 10:19 am #16353
Total Items in Store: 608
Items Sold: 9
Cost of Items Sold: $31
Total Sales: $239
Profit: $208
Highest Price Sold: $50 90’s reversible UNC Tarheels Jacket
Average Price Sold: $26.56
Average Profit: $23.10The funnies of ebay selling – I knew who won the NCAA basketball championship Tuesday morning without seeing it on facebook or the news. I sold a UNC jacket for full price shortly after the game would have been over. Lol.
I was able to get about 25 items listed this week. Some of them I already had draft listings on. It’s not much but it is a start in the right direction.
As for auctions, I’ve tried a few over the years but in this area they are pretty crappy. I haven’t really seen box lots -Maybe I have just gone to the wrong ones? I don’t know…it just seems like a waste of time to spend half a day at an auction in the hopes of finding something good. Even then, you may not even win the bid on what you find!
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04/10/2017 at 12:59 pm #16361
Like bad yard sales, there are bad auctions. Some auction auctions just seem to have no taste in what they sell. There’s one very close to us that sells literal junk and trash. Locals just go to hang out and talk. I don;t know how they stay in business.
But once you find a good auction house, they can usually be counted on for consistency.
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04/10/2017 at 11:41 am #16357
Jay,
“Touched by the devil.” lol
I just watched Antiques Roadshow from Salt Lake City and there was an early Mormon hymnal worth $40,000+.-
04/10/2017 at 12:57 pm #16359
Seriously. Hymnals are money.
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04/10/2017 at 12:01 pm #16358
total items in the store 57
(slowly adding to this when I get the free listing offers as I’m only part time)
This week I sold a Vietnam Decorated Army Jacket $50 Cog pd $25 for 2 jackets.
The other one sold a couple of weeks ago a Marine Dress Jacket for $50.I sold a Red Bull Hat I got at the good will $2 (new ) for $25 I noticed rb was popular and this had a red bull inscribed logo on the back buckle and a Cooperstown bb hat for $14.95.
My average price on hats are $15.95 including 1st class shipping. I average about $11-$13 a hat and they do turn around fast if you sell them between $14.95-17.95..Sales are slow but steady on my mug store 50 items.
I sold a porcelain Beatles travel mug today for $16.95
pd $2…slow and steady. Last month I sold 5 mugs average between 14.95-$20.
I think having a dedicated store for mugs/glassware/barware helps the sale. -
04/10/2017 at 1:47 pm #16365
Auction Talk!
You could do a whole alternate podcast and only talk about auction experiences, I would listen. -
04/10/2017 at 2:29 pm #16369
Total Items in Store: 1,300
Items Sold: 24
Cost of Items Sold: $21.50
Total Sales: $883.99
Highest Price Sold: $143.59 (Vintage doorbell)
Average Price Sold: $36.83
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $35
Number of items listed this week: 72Better week slightly than the previous. Average sales price $5 more than what we normally see. This weekend was great! Packaged 18 items this morning.
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04/10/2017 at 2:48 pm #16370
Crikey…. auctions. Be careful. I’ll leave it at that.
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04/10/2017 at 4:06 pm #16375
Week of 4/2-4/8
Total items in store: 801 (a new high!)
Items sold: 26 (2 Bonanza)
Total sales: $362.32
Avg sale: $13.94
COGS: $21.71
Returns-0 Unpaid item finally closed
$ Spent on new inventory: $12
# of new items listed: 27
Highest sale: $45 Manfred Veyhl silver in porcelain salt & pepper shakers from GermanyI spent as much time reorganizing mt EBay space last week as I did listing, so I was very happy with sales for the week. The lesser priced items I’ve been trying to upgrade from are still selling, but were in nice mix of higher priced items. I’m really happy with the balance in my PayPal account, especially since I feel like all I’ve done all month is pay taxes!
As for auctions, I swear I could become seriously addicted to them! At this point in my life however, I just don’t have a whole day to spare. I’m pretty much ‘on call’ for my dad and husband, so estate sales, thrifting and online auctions work better for my schedule right now. I’m always on the lookout for new sources! One of the last online auctions I bought stuff from has been very lucrative. One boxlot cost me .34 cents and I’ve made $59 off of it so far!
Goals this week-continued reorganization of my office, listing a minimum of 5 items each day and trying to curb my scavenging until a get a better handle on my mess.
Have a great week everyone!
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04/10/2017 at 8:24 pm #16387
Apr. 2 – 8
Total Items in Store: 687
Items Sold: 16
Total Sales: $798
Highest Price: $140 (Sony 8 Track Player/Recorder)
Average Price: $50
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $56
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $292Wow, I did not know I made this much this week! I thought I was really slowing down for the summer season drag. Cool.
I love this week’s podcast because I love auctions! I’d go to them all the time if it wasn’t for this pesky day-job. I’ll usually go on AuctionZip and pick the best one’s in the area on the weekends. Lately, though, all the one’s I’ve been going to have been busts. I think with auction season starting up again, all the resellers have all gotten antsy to get out and get more things to sell, which leads to overcrowded auctions and stuff going for way too high.
I went to the most frustrating one last weekend. Like you guys, I live for box lots. You can always find something valuable as long as you know what you’re doing. Well this auctioneer decided to do buyer’s choice out of Every. Single. Box Lot! Here’s a little box of postcards, BUYER’S CHOICE! Here’s a box of jello molds… BUYER’S CHOICE! What’s in this box? Oh, dirty comic books. BUYER’S CHOICE! This went on for over 3 hours before we just gave up and left out of frustration.
In other news, I upgraded my store to a premium subscription. I should have done it sooner as I was paying more in listing fees than what a premium subscription costs. Oh well.
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04/10/2017 at 9:22 pm #16390
That’s crazy. Our local auction is known for getting through stuff quickly, they love to group things up into one lot.
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04/10/2017 at 9:23 pm #16391
i hate buyers choice too. i’m like, just sell me the whole box/table/auction house!
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04/11/2017 at 1:15 am #16401
Do you mean they did Buyer’s Choice over every item in every box? Or buyer’s choice as in “High bidder gets first pick of the box they want”?
My auction house does the latter, which is fine with me. I’d rather take the things I want, then be stuck with a table pile of b.s. that I don’t want to deal with.
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04/11/2017 at 7:20 am #16408
In this case, it was the former. Literally every single box he would pick up, take everything out and display it on the table and tell everyone you’re buying by choice. It didn’t matter if it was junky pinknives or kitchen utensils. And he would do buyer’s choice until every item from that box was sold. It was the most ridiculous auction. Probably took 3 more hours after I left for him to finish. I won’t be going back to that place for sure.
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04/10/2017 at 9:24 pm #16392
April 2-8 2017
• Total Items in Store: 725
• Items Sold: 21 eBay 1 Bonanza $20
• International 2 GSP
• Total Sales $1135
• Highest Price $280 Pioneer Receiver
• Average Price Sold: $52
• Returns: 1 boots for size
• Cost of Items Sold: $125
• Cost of items purchased this week $2000 ishI kept seeing this acoustic guitar ad on CL, I wasn’t interested as he wanted $100 but I noticed something familiar in the background, a 10.5″ metal Maxell tape reel, so I emailed him saying I didn’t want another guitar but do you have any stereo equipment for sale. I ended up buying everything he had for $1875 including some tube guitar amps as he was moving and wanted it all gone.
Took some negotiating, he started out at $3000 but after I found out he manages the local Acura dealership it was easy as I speak that language, low ball and come up ever so grudgingly.
It included some very high end Marantz amplifiers, preamp, tuner, Teac reel to reel and the most awesome sounding JBL speakers I’ve ever heard. It’s going to be tough to sell some of this but I put a couple amps up for $1900 today.-
04/10/2017 at 11:38 pm #16393
Outstanding work! Knowledge!
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04/11/2017 at 12:05 am #16397
Wow nice one! I’m sure that equipment will sell, I’m a muso myself and I’m jealous of that pickup.
In other news I flipped my first clothing item from a thrift store today and funnily enough it was 2 items within an hour, sold a pair of womens jeans for $25 and a pair of mens work pants for $22, only paid about $1 for them each. I know it’s nothing special but that’s my first time buying and selling a clothing item so I’m happy to cross that off the list. Always feels good when you enter something new and it pays off.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by davidbloop. Reason: added sold price
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04/11/2017 at 12:38 am #16399
I’ve been thinking more about the podcast topic, transfer of wealth. This topic pretty well sums up my last few years. My parents married in 1955 and lived in Japan, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka, where I was born) and Brazil before coming back to the states. Dad fought in WWII and they were very much a part of the post war boom generation.
Mom passed in 2014 and I still don’t know if dad was being practical or couldn’t deal with having her things around, but we did a minor house cleaning at the time. Even with that, I still look around his house and think, ‘What the hell am I going to do with all this stuff?’ I feel guilty sometimes because I look at something and think, oh I’ll keep that, or nope, don’t need that. He’s 93 and the decisions are inevitable. I think because I do estate sales, eBay etc. I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Can you imagine families that face a houseful of stuff, never having planned ahead? It has to be totally overwhelming.
Even knowing what I do, the emotions are right there in every decision. For instance, what the heck am I going to do with 2 full sets of vintage Noritake china? Practical answer, sell one. Emotional answer-mom got these in Japan, one for her and one for grandma how can I get rid of it? I think that’s why I try to be respectful of the things I get at estate sales. There is most likely a story behind every item and by passing them along on EBay, the story goes on a bit longer.
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04/11/2017 at 8:07 am #16413
Right there with you Retired Treasures. We have had 3 deaths in our family in the last year. Two were completely unexpected and now, in addition to the grief, our family is contending with the stuff that our loved ones thought they had time to pare down. It never occurred to us that all of this could happen at once, but it has. So, I guess we fit your scenario – times 3! Overwhelming? You bet!
Indeed, everything has a story, and hopefully family members who have a connection to something will want to take it. If not, it must be donated or sold because it is just too much weighing us down. It helps to remember that it really is the memory we want to keep and that can happen without the physical item. But it’s still hard.
I am pretty minimalist anyway, but this experience has given me even more motivation to make sure my children are not burdened with mountains of stuff and complicated finances when I die.
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04/11/2017 at 9:51 am #16422
Best podcast ever. You guys had me snickering a lot. My parents were both born in 1925 and raised poor during the depression. Dad fought at the Battle of the Bulge under Patton. They had a long time to accumulate stuff but they were never wasteful or extravagant, in fact they were bigtime savers. My dad was a bit of a hoarder because he knew what it was like to do without. He was using his 1950’s radios and fans right up until the end.
I understand the whole auction thing too. It takes stamina to be a thrifter, dig through piles of stuff and to make 20 trips out to the truck and back, nevermind the packing…
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04/11/2017 at 10:00 am #16424
Years ago a friend’s grandfather died and the family couldn’t deal with handling his stuff. They picked through and took what they wanted, then donated everything else to the church. I was asked to help with the pick up and a bunch of us went there in a truck and started emptying his apartment. Everyone was just carrying armloads of stuff out to the truck and I looked around me and thought “this was somebody’s entire life!” It was a sobering day. Since then, I’m very aware of what I have.
Numbers this week April 03-09;
Total items in store 173
Items sold 6
COGS $80
Total sales $203.45
Highest price sold $45 (Post lantern)
Average price sold $34
Returns 0
Inventory $40
Items listed 24I was doing well with my daily listing goal, but got called away to deal with some issues with our rental properties. It’s a PITA to have to drive four hours to go deal with houses! Took up precious listing time. NOT a happy camper! 🙁
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04/11/2017 at 10:51 am #16430
I had a new one happen to me on ebay yesterday. I took a $35 offer for a $50 item. The customer saw $17.95 for shipping and paid. However, ebay charged them $32.75 for shipping. The customer sent me a message thinking I did the over charge. I sent them a refund for the difference. Then I noticed in the message at the top was a request to cancel. I called ebay to find out what happened and all they could say was that it was a glitch and they would send over to tech support. So I told the customer what I found out and they are no good for me to ship. Hope none of you run into this – it makes it look like the seller is doing a scam on the shipping charges.
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04/11/2017 at 10:54 am #16431
That should have been that the customer is now good for me to ship since I gave the refund.
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04/12/2017 at 11:48 pm #16540
When my Mom died my brother and I were overwhelmed, being left with my Dad who had full blown Alzheimer’s. He wouldn’t move in with either of us and was combative. Sad for a dignified man who was a proud veteran of WWII and had met all the early astronauts shown in “The Right Stuff” when he worked at MacDonnell’s (now Boeing). We ended up admitting him to an Alzheimer’s unit and just giving away the whole house full of whatever neither of us wanted, which was most of it. We had to sell the house to pay for his care. Life is difficult, to quote the first paragraph of The Road Less Traveled.
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04/11/2017 at 1:10 pm #16444
J&R – above you said “And because younger generations have much different buying habits…” I guess you mean that the younger generations are more frugal? If so I can’t agree. The people living in McMansions, at least in my neck of the woods, are around 35 – 55, aka, younger than the baby boomers. They spend like there’s no tomorrow, run up massive debts, and donate a lot of the things that we find in thrift stores. As I see it the most wasteful spenders are the children & grandchildren of the boomers and hence the waste stream isn’t going to end anytime soon. (Barring another Great Depression, or a crippling war.) JMHO
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04/11/2017 at 2:55 pm #16450
Can’t wait to listen to the podcast tonight!
Here are my numbers for April 2-8, 2017
Total Items in Store: 875
Items Sold: 17
Cost of Items Sold: $34.08
Total Sales: $331.18
Highest Price Sold: $80 (Signed Nicodemus Pottery Piece, bought for .25)
Average Price Sold: $21.49
Returns: 0 (But I did have “Someone hacked my eBay account… on a 99 cent auction for a keychain – which eBay cancelled the listing and refunded my fees.)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $22.86Lots of sales, but mostly lower dollar.. moving out cheaper inventory, that is fine with me. My $1.99 80’s laser printer just crapped out on me, so I caved in and bought a new Brother laser. The base model was on sale for $69.99 this week at Office Depot.
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04/11/2017 at 4:09 pm #16456
anyone having trouble with paypalshipping label default payments? They always take my shipping payment out of my Balance. Since april 3 when paypal did an system upgrade All my label payments are being with drawn from my back up credit card. even thou I have the funds in paypal account. Help desk says aware but can’t fix bug??
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04/11/2017 at 4:51 pm #16459
Yep, someone else mentioned this. Must be an eBay bug. Keep enough money in your account to handle any costs till they get it worked out.
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04/11/2017 at 10:06 pm #16471
Apr 2-8 2017
Total items in store: Etsy 282 // Ebay 241
Items Sold: Etsy 2 // Ebay 16
Cost of items Sold: Etsy $0 // Ebay $54.15
Total Sales: Etsy $26.70 // Ebay $304.64
Highest Price Sold: Kalso Earth shoes $50
Average Price Sold: $18.40
Returns: 0
Number of items listed this week: 45 (Listed at $871)No returns last week, but the Kalso Earth Shoes that were my biggest sale for the week have a return request in for them this week. :/ Dang!
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04/11/2017 at 11:56 pm #16472
Just listened to the podcast and wanted to offer a small correction:
Venture capital is not like a loan. When you get venture capital funding, what the VCs are doing is purchasing a percentage share of your company. If your company then goes bankrupt, you don’t owe them anything.-
04/12/2017 at 4:48 am #16478
you don’t owe them anything…except your soul.
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04/12/2017 at 11:12 am #16493
I would like to address the topic vis-à-vis the baby boomers, opportunities, and wealth transfer.
First, I fully agree that baby boomers and their parents currently have a whole lot of material wealth and “stuff” collected over the post war boom years in the US, most likely more than a Gen X or Millennial does at the same life stage. The answer as to why this is isn’t as straightforward as some are making it out to be. I’m going to lay out what I think the main contributing factors are:
Spending habits are a big part of this. The trend right now is to buy “experiences”, not things. Vacations, restaurants, beauty treatments, pet grooming, balloon rides, cruises, theme parks, sports / play / movie / plane tickets,activities for the kids, etc. Add in stuff like internet / cell phone bills, cell phones / tablets / TVs that become nearly worthless every few years, and there isn’t much money left over for tangible things that last.
I work an upper middle class job, and from observing my co-workers, this is where the majority of their money is going. Every dollar spent on these things is a dollar not spent on possessions that scavengers like us would find in 20 years time.
Mobility and space is definitely another issue. The younger generations are moving more and more from job to job and city to city, making it hard to accumulate items. Instead of sticking things in the basement for 20+ years and forgetting about them, when you’re moving every 3-5 years, you have to get rid of it or take it with you.
Back in the day staying put in the same town / house for your whole career, or even life, was more common, allowing for more accumulated material wealth.
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04/12/2017 at 3:04 pm #16510
@SalarySlave – What you say is interesting. And I guess if people are moving every 3-5 years they are offloading a lot of stuff every time, which again enters the waste stream, only it is newer stuff. Yes, the older generations were much less likely to move thereby making accumulation of old stuff possible (trunks in the attic!).
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04/12/2017 at 12:25 pm #16495
Got to vote my shares for the eBay stock I bought eons ago … I love the little jolt of power I felt in spite of the fact that I own so little.
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04/12/2017 at 5:06 pm #16519
Thanks guys for another wonderful podcast. I usually listen while walking, and I need to take along pen and paper to make notes for things I want to remember to comment on.
As I history nerd, I really enjoyed the thoughts, both on the podcast and in the comments, on why and how different generations spend their money. As has been mentioned, people who lived through the depression often kept things “just in case”, but many of the things they kept were made to last AND to be repaired rather than thrown out. Will be very interesting to see what the thrift stores are filled with in 30 years.
Regarding hymnals selling well, I was raised United Methodist, and in the early 1970s they changed the hymnal. Many of the older people were NOT happy, my parents included,, because they took out some of their favorite hymns. The church kept the old hymnal, and it was used in my parents’ Sunday School class. If I ever find one of the older ones, I will buy it in a heartbeat. If you know a hymnal is a version that is no longer the “official” one of the denomination, you will likely do well with it.
Hope everyone is having a great week! Time for me to go back to listing, listing, listing.
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04/12/2017 at 5:11 pm #16520
That’s interesting. We found a big box of Baptist hymnals, but we’ll keep an eye out for United Methodist. I can now safely say we’re doing the Lord’s work.
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04/12/2017 at 11:52 pm #16541
I can’t wait to hear you and Ryanne harmonizing on “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” on a podcast. 😊
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04/14/2017 at 7:35 am #16590
Actually Jay, look for hymnals that only say Methodist Church (or The Methodist Church). These hymnals were from before the Methodists became “united” in 1968. The ones I remember had a brown cover, and were not nearly as thick as many current ones – maybe about 1/2 – 3/4 inch.
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05/14/2017 at 8:06 pm #17987
I was raised by my aunt and uncle, both who grew up during the depression and they were both big time savers. Even down to stocking the pantry, they had a tonne of canned goods just in case. When I was a kid, we always shopped at thrift stores for clothes. They both taught me the value of money, it’s where my thrifty nature comes from.
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04/12/2017 at 10:31 pm #16536
Great podcast this week Jay and Ryanne. Got me thinking about things both Ebay and otherwise.
I really wonder about the idea that baby boomers have a lot more stuff then GenXers or Millennials. I’ve thought so at times, but then I’ve met folks my own age (er…GenX) and younger who are really into stuff. Records, toys, car stuff, and on and on.
But I do feel the relationship to stuff has changed. My wife and I like to keep our stuff minimal and our lives simple. We try to raise our daughter with the idea that doing things, and experiencing all kinds of things is better than just getting the next toy. I feel that a lot of people around us feel pretty much the same way (perhaps self selected?).
But my mother and others in her generation always seem to use stuff as a part of regular experiences. So that one can’t go out with grandma without getting some kind of thing. There is always a gift, or a little something, that has to be added in to an experience.
Perhaps that is too controversial. Getting down on Grandmas 🙂
As for my week, I finally crossed the 500 mark for my store. A little something to celebrate.
Total Items in Store: 501
Items Sold: 18
Cost of Items Sold: $4.25
Total Sales: $352.81
Highest Price Sold: $38.50 Vintage copy of Dreamwever 8 w/ serial not in box
Average Price Sold: $19.60
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $8.40
Number of items listed this week: 58I had the opportunity to go crazy listing this week. My wife and Daughter are in Japan for a few months, so I have a kind of 2nd bachelorhood. Trying to keep myself busy so I don’t miss them too much.
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04/13/2017 at 7:39 am #16549
Hello all: I just read the following article about Shopify. I’ve heard of Shopify bfore. It doesn’t get much discussion on the scavengerlife podcast mostly because (I assume) eBay takes out the hassle of running your own site and costs less. This article does indicate that Shopify does have integration with Amazon. It would be interesting if it also had integration with eBay. I did investigate Shopify a few years ago. Maybe I’ll take another look at them now. Does anyone on this blog use Shopify? If, “Yes”, what has your experience been?
7 Fascinating Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Shopify.
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04/13/2017 at 7:58 am #16550
This should really be a thread all on its own.
We tried to start a Shopify store over Xmas and shared our results in the podcast. Unfortunately Shopify’s import program would duplicate all all eBay listings multiple times making it worthless. We worked with Shopify’s customer service who admitted that their import feature was broken and wouldnt be fixed. They suggested we pay for a 3rd party service to import listings which was another $30/month on top of the Shopify fee.
I’d love to hear if anyone has gotten Shopify to sync their eBay listings without issue.
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04/13/2017 at 12:10 pm #16565
I remember that now. Forgot that you had a bad experience.
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04/13/2017 at 12:43 pm #16567
I wish there was a way to do sync our eBay store with Shopify. It’s weird they don’t fix their issue.
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04/14/2017 at 4:18 pm #16615
I tried the Shopify trial. It just ended a couple of weeks ago. It duplicated and triplicated all of my listings. I wanted to try it because I’m interested in buyable pins on Pinterest. I’m going to wait until they get that wrinkle ironed out.
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04/14/2017 at 4:20 pm #16616
That was our exact goal. Buyable pins on Pinterest. but Shopify also imported our store multiple times. Only way to fix it was to manually delete thousands of duplicate listings. So weird they wouldnt fix this.
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04/13/2017 at 12:46 pm #16569
I personally think Shopify is great but not to run in tandem with an eBay store. I’d run shopify as it’s own separate store and use it as a means of diversification, just like starting an etsy store. The biggest thing is you have to sort your own marketing out and you do need to spend the extra time promoting on social media.
I personally wouldn’t activate the paid subscription until you’ve filled your store with LOTS of inventory first, to justify the sub prices. Luckily you can build your store for free and only start paying once it goes live.
Shopify is great if you have a niche that you’re really interested in and start a specialised store dedicated to that niche. I have a Shopify store for my fish breeding business for example. The type of thing I’d never sell on eBay.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by davidbloop.
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04/13/2017 at 6:12 pm #16579
My USPS dashboard is ONLY packages. I like it.
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05/14/2017 at 7:23 pm #17974
I cracked up at you guys trolling the pushy wannabe buyer. I admit I was taken in by a similar minded guy a few months ago. I don’t do best offer. I sell at a fair price, not the lowest but affordable. He kept sending me offers to lower the price, so I did because frankly the boots were taking up too much space. He even mentioned I should sell it to him reduced because it wasn’t selling.
Anyway, when he gets them, suddenly there’s a smell so I said send them back. He was hinting that he deserved a partial refund. No way was I giving that guy any more of a discount. I get them back, and you guessed it, no smell. I resold them later on. Next time, I will block and raise the price like you guys did.
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05/14/2017 at 7:38 pm #17977
Buyers who are too pushy often are just trouble. Good lesson to learn!
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